Superior officials will examine new mediums for how it communicates with residents, potentially shifting away from the traditional listserv platform and email blasts many small town communities have come to know in recent years.

Trustees will convene a work session on Monday to explore a series of options for new ways to send out community-wide notifications that eschew the costs typically associated with municipal communication platforms. Options could exist in Google Groups and Reddit subpages, officials say.

The town's current listserv process — an automated email service facilitated by a third-party vendor that sends out messages to a group of subscribers — was launched in late 2000 upon the birth of the town's website, and officials now say the program may be starting to show its age in the era of increasingly-localized social media platforms.

"Although not originally intended for this purpose, the Town's listserv evolved to become an avenue for all types of citizen postings and discussions on any number of topics," a report compiled by Town Manager Matt Magley, Assistant Town Manager Martin Toth and Management Analyst Emily Clapper , reads. "Since the creation of this listserv, when the use of email was relatively new, there have been advances in communications and social media that offer more efficient ways to inform residents and businesses of Town activities."

Such platforms include Facebook, Twitter and perhaps most notably, Nextdoor; Lafayette and Boulder utilize the latter for press releases and community-wide notifications, with typically successful returns, officials say.

Lafayette officials have weighed migrating some of the city's notification content to other platforms in the past, before ultimately deciding that its presence on social media was the most cost effective.

A screenshot of the city of Longmont's Reddit subpage. Superior officials will explore whether to implement similar communication methods with its residents in the coming weeks. (Courtesy town of Superior)

Superior has shied away from previous similar platforms in the past, instead using a now-defunct program known as "Engage Superior," before "citizen participation dropped and it was discontinued," officials wrote.

Along with a presence on several social media sites, Boulder uses the "Boulder Council Hotline," an email posting thread among Boulder's Council members and staff that allows residents to sign up to receive the emails, but not interact, themselves.

Boulder, Longmont and Broomfield are among a handful of other Front Range municipalities that utilize subreddit pages for city notifications.

On Reddit, members can submit content to the site that are subject to votes from fellow posters.

"Reddit provides an alternative that is a more dynamic web-based option, currently operating for several area jurisdictions, and incorporates a citizen communication posting function at no cost," the report reads.

The town's service has nearly 500 subscribers, according to records, with an annual cost to the town of $1,300 to maintain. The total number of contacts for the town's email blasts is 6,507, with almost 4,000 currently active. It costs the town $840 per year to provide the service.

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